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 A new rule that requires “culturally responsive teaching and
leading” standards to be incorporated in all Illinois teacher preparation
programs will take effect in 2025, because the Illinois General Assembly’s Joint
Committee on Administrative Rules voted to approve the proposed rule on Feb. 17.
Eight of the committee’s 12 members would have needed to vote to suspend the
rule to prevent its implementation, and only the six Republican members voted to
do so.
The Illinois State Board of Education adopted the new standards to “prepare
future educators to teach diverse students [and] to foster classroom and school
environments in which every student feels that they belong.”
Critics of the new standards, however, have said they require educators to
embrace left-leaning ideology and prioritize political and social activism in
classrooms at a time when Illinois students are underperforming on basic skills
tests. Others, such as the Chicago Tribune, have praised the goal of preparing
teachers to engage with students from diverse backgrounds, while also warning
that there is reason to worry the new rule “embeds politics into teacher
training” and that it is unwise to impose controversial new standards in
“today’s highly charged political environment.”
What is the rule change and what will it do?
The Diverse and Learner Ready Teacher Network developed the new standards at the
request of the Illinois State Board of Education, which adopted the rule Dec.
16. The standards will apply to all Illinois professional educator licenses in
teaching, school support personnel and administrative fields.
The new rule amends the section of the Illinois Administrative Code that governs
standards for Illinois teachers to require all teacher training programs in the
state to adopt a set of “culturally responsive teaching and leading” provisions.
As all public school teachers in Illinois must be licensed, and many private
schools prefer their teachers to have licenses, the rule will affect training
for the vast majority of the state’s primary and secondary school teachers.
ISBE also plans to offer optional courses on the new standards to current
teachers through professional development programs. The board has noted
decisions about professional development training are subject to local control
by educators and school districts.
The rule replaces existing guidelines aimed at training teachers to engage with
children from diverse backgrounds. Provisions that define the competent teacher
as one who “understands cultural and community diversity … and how to learn
about and incorporate students’ experiences, cultures and community resources
into instruction” as well as “facilitates a learning community in which
individual differences are respected” will be replaced by the new rules.
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The standards are broken into sections that
address: educators’ “self-awareness and relationship to others,”
“systems of oppression,” “students as individuals,” “students as
co-creators,” “leveraging student advocacy,” “family and community
collaboration,” “content selections in all curricula” and “student
representation in the learning environment.”
Rule draws criticism
Opponents of the new standards have said the requirements
essentially impose an ideological litmus test on educators, making
any teacher who does not espouse certain views unwelcome in Illinois
schools. In their original form, the provisions were explicitly
left-leaning, and educators were required to “embrace and encourage
progressive viewpoints and perspectives.” After opponents of the
proposed rule brought public attention to the language, the word
“progressive” was replaced with “a balance of viewpoints and
perspectives.” However, this wording change has not alleviated
concerns that the standard is aimed at pushing a political agenda on
Illinois educators and schools.
Moreover, despite ISBE’s insistence to the contrary, the rule seems
certain to affect the substance of what is taught to Illinois
students. Under the rule, teachers in training are called on to
“curate the curriculum” and work with students to “co-create content
that encourages critical thinking about culture and that includes
counternarratives to dominant culture.” The standard further directs
educators to “implement and integrate the wide spectrum and fluidity
of identities in the curriculum” – yet does not provide specifics to
give parents an indication of what this might ultimately mean for
their children’s instruction.
ISBE has pushed back against criticism that the rule improperly
focuses on “politically-charged topics, including race, gender
identity and the role of power, privilege and student activism”
at a time when so many Illinois students are failing to achieve
basic competency in reading and math. Dr. Carmen Ayala, the state
superintendent of education, countered that implementing “strategies
like cultural responsiveness could not be more important” in
addressing the state’s achievement gaps between students of color
and white students, as well as pandemic-related learning loss.
The effects of the new standards on Illinois teachers and students
remain to be seen. ISBE will now begin implementing the standards in
coordination with Illinois teacher training programs. The rule takes
effect for new programs in October 2021, and existing programs have
until October 2025 to align their coursework with the new rule.
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